HARTFORD, Conn. -- A federal audit of $6.5 million worth of law enforcement grants awarded to the city since 2006 found minor accounting problems and a need for better grant management in the city's police department.
Auditors with the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General said they questioned $14,160 in fringe benefits that the city erroneously charged to a grant. The city returned that amount before a final audit report was released this month.
"According to a Hartford official, these mischarges were due to a less experienced official, without experience in managing a grant of this complexity, mistakenly charging the grant for unallowable items," the report stated. "The official added that highlighting this issue as a result of our audit has caused the Hartford officials to check other grants for similar mischarges."
The audit covered four federal grants given to Hartford to boost crime prevention and to preserve police officer jobs. The largest was a three-year, $4.26 million grant awarded in 2009 under the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services' (COPS) Hiring Recovery Program.
The report states that Hartford submitted inaccurate crime statistics for 2008 in that grant application, although auditors believe that the police department nonetheless deserved the funding, which was designated for the hiring of 23 full-time police officers.
"Hartford and COPS concurred with our recommendation to ensure future grant administrators receive adequate training before assuming grant management duties," the report stated.
The police department's communications coordinator, Nancy Mulroy, said in a statement Thursday that under Chief James Rovella's direction, the department has remedied the issues raised in the report and "implemented new policies and procedures and budgeting controls, where necessary, to ensure compliance."
Copyright 2013 - The Hartford Courant
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
